Rude Awakening
by CharacterFlaws
Summary: Jaden and Chazz's duel gets interrupted when a secret comes out about one of Jaden's favorite monsters. His world is turned upside down.


Jaden looked out across the dueling arena to his opponent, Chazz Princeton, standing silently but impatiently with his duel disk at the ready. Duel Academy students were still entering through the doors, swarming into the bleachers to find one of a few empty seats remaining. The buzz of excitement filled the air around them, this was going to be an amazing show — everyone knew both duelists were at their best when facing off against each other. But out of those present, Jaden was absolutely certain he was the most pumped for this. He loved dueling, more than anything, and the opportunity to practice his skills in such a positive environment, where only pride and a chance to have fun were at stake, filled his heart with eagerness.

"Alright, students," Doctor Crowler spoke into a microphone from the center of the arena. He really missed his calling to be an announcer, Jaden thought. The professor commanded the stage like a trained thespian, and most students agreed he made a better entertainer than duelist. "Just find somewhere to stand if you can't find a seat. That's right, that's right."

The movement in the auditorium began to settle. Jaden's stomach, on the other hand, was filling with butterflies. He wanted to get this duel started _now_.

Crowler surveyed the room and appeared pleased with what he saw. "Very good. Let us commence the Adrian Gecko Memorial Duel, featuring our very own Chazz Princeton versus Jaden… Yuki, was it? Yes, that sounds right. And duel start!" He hurried off the stage to his usual place near the front of the bleachers.

"Get your game on, Chazz!" Jaden called out, feeling a huge smile take over his own face. He pulled his opening hand from the top of his deck and looked down at his cards. His favorite monsters looked back at him, good ol' Burstinatrix, the always reliable Sparkman, and hey! What good luck!

Chazz rolled his eyes as he rearranged a few cards in his hand. "Yeah yeah," he muttered, finally seeming to come to a decision about his move. "I play a monster in face down defense and set two cards. Turn end."

Jaden frowned slightly, then allowed his grin to return almost immediately. His friend was always surly during duels, but he'll surely pep up once he sees what Jaden has in store. This opening move was going to be sweet. "Alright, Chazz, I play Elemental Hero Bubbleman in attack mode!"

From across the arena, Chazz visibly tensed. Jaden mentally shrugged it off and kept going.

"And because he's out here all alone I get to draw—"

"No."

Jaden was taken aback. "What?"

"NO."

"Um…" He looked around the arena, perplexed. All the other students watching them didn't change their expressions from the vague anticipation they had on earlier. Bubbleman stood in front of him, alone, as Jaden had previously stated so that clearly wasn't the problem here, so what on earth was Chazz rejecting? Jaden looked over at him, noticed the anger flashing in his gray eyes even from this distance, which only deepened his confusion. There appeared to be no other problem than whatever weird thing Chazz was fixated on, a common problem Jaden admitted to himself. So he kept going. "… I get to draw two new—"

"NO!"

Chazz screamed it with such force and anger that Jaden flinched. What the heck was going on here? Maybe he should ask. "Chazz, what the heck is going on here?"

His friend shoved the cards in his hand into his jacket pocket as he stormed across the arena platform toward Jaden. Despite Jaden knowing he would never do anything to hurt him, he still felt an overwhelming need to back away, but managed to keep it in check until Chazz was right in front of him. The other boy snatched Jaden's left arm, the one with his duel disk firmly attached, and lifted it up roughly, jerking it toward Jaden in an awkward position so that his fist was buried in his chest with his elbow pointed outward. Chazz slammed a finger down on the duel disk, right on Bubbleman's card.

"Read this to me."

Jaden gave him a bewildered look but adjusted his arm enough to be able to read the card sideways. He wasn't sure where Chazz was going with this, but he wasn't one to not humor one of his closest friends. He just wished Chazz would let go of his arm so he could detach the card and read it like a normal person but what are you gonna do? "Elemental Hero Bubbleman, four stars, water attribute…"

"The _effect,_ idiot _."_

"… When this card is summoned, you can draw two cards. You must control no other cards or have any cards in your hand to activate and resolve this effect." Jaden paused. _Wait WHAT?_ There must be some kind of mistake. Chazz was always messing with people, maybe he switched out his card with a fake one that had different text? He's owned this card for years there's no way he never noticed this before, right? Come to think of it, maybe he only skimmed the effect. There was so much text on these cards and sometimes it was a little overwhelming to get it all straight, that's why there's an entire school dedicated to this game after all. It was all too complicated, too convoluted — wait since when did he even know that word he didn't remember ever learning it or knowing its meaning before. Why was nothing making sense, he always thought he could count on his monsters if nothing else.

This just… this just couldn't be right.

"Jay! Bro, are you okay?"

Jaden squeezed his eyes shut to the rush of frantic thoughts in his head. When he opened them again, he was staring up at a large plank of rough wood over his head, with deep knots in the course surface. He slowly became aware of the blanket wrapped around his torso, the lumpy pillow careening over the edge of his bed next to him. With bleary eyes, he could make out his best friend Syrus' face in the dim light of their shared dorm room. He looked concerned. "Syrus, what's wrong?"

Syrus backed off, removing his hands from Jaden's shoulders. "You were whimpering in your sleep and shouting the word 'no' over and over again. It was kind of scary, I didn't know you had bad dreams."

Jaden shook his head to clear away the sleep. It was a dream? But it felt so real, he could still feel Chazz's fingers digging into his arm, the panic in his throat as he struggled to read his monster's effect aloud…

Bubbleman!

He needed to check, he needed to be sure this was all just a dream and that his subconscious wasn't telling him something he never wanted to know. With a sudden burst of energy, he tried throwing the constricting covers off himself but he must have tossed and turned more than he thought because the blanket got caught under his leg and he almost punched Syrus in the face trying to get it free. He apologized quickly as he rushed across the room to the desk, throwing open the bottom right drawer where he kept his cards, then started digging through his deck until he found the right one.

Bubbleman's proud face, with his wide chin and helmet that looked unusually similar to Batman's, looked up at Jaden, giving him comfort in the familiarity. He'd fought many duels alongside that blue hero. With reluctance, he allowed his eyes to lower to the effect typed out beneath the card art.

"WARRIOR/EFFECT. A monster attacked by this card will be destroyed during the End Phase of the 5th turn after the attack."

Jaden let his hand holding the card drop to his side and tilted his head back in anguish, letting out a laughable howl to rival Darth Vader's. "NOOOOOO!"


End file.
